Down the Foggy Ruins of Time
by PhoebeDreams
Summary: Jane Wilkinson leads an unremarkable life - until an anomaly opens up in her living room. Captain Becker always keeps his focus on the job - until a new addition to the team makes him lose his treasured professionalism.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from Jane.

_An Eventful Evening – Part 1_

Jane was quite certain that she was going to either faint or wake up from what had to be the worst nightmare she had ever had.

The day had started out quite ordinarily: She had gone to work, sat through a boring press event, fended off the advances of her sleazy boss and got stuck with proof-reading duty just as she had intended to head out.

When she finally left the editorial offices, it was past nine and she was yearning for nothing more than a hot bath and her bed to ring in the weekend. She changed into a bathrobe and filled the tub with deliciously lavender-scented hot water, and went downstairs once more for a glass of wine.

That was when she saw the light come out of the living-room. At first she thought she had left on the TV, but the light was different. It was more white than blue, and it wasn't flickering so much as shimmering in soft movements, like sunlight reflecting off water. She stepped into the living-room, and what she saw made her stop short in the doorway. There was a light in the middle of her living-room, but its source was the strangest thing she had ever seen. Hundreds of shimmering prisms shaped like shards of glass were floating in the air, forming a sort of round object through which light was shining into the room and onto the prisms, creating the shifting, shimmering light. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Jane was about to step closer to it, to touch it, when she heard the noise. It was a low growling, a little bit like a cat, but deeper, more resounding and definitely more threatening. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, remnants of age old defense instincts kicking in. To her right, she found the fireplace, and quickly grabbed the thick iron poker from its stand before moving back towards the doorway. That was when the growling turned into a sort of roaring, and through the shimmering thing, a huge tiger jumped right into the middle of her living-room. It was much bigger than any tiger she had ever seen at the zoo, and it had long fangs that she was certain no living type of tiger should have. Had she not been so scared, Jane would have been amazed by how graceful it moved despite its size.

The tiger looked around confusedly for a second before it noticed her and looked straight into her eyes, and Jane realized that there was nothing but her couch standing between her and certain, painful death. She gripped the poker tighter even though she knew it wasn't going to help her at all, and then the tiger made a small movement towards her and she screamed, fully expecting to die.

She didn't, but things did get very confusing. When she opened her eyes again, the tiger was still prowling up and down, probably playing with its prey. There was a loud bang at the front door and someone ran in just as the tiger tightened its muscles to jump, and a weight hit her from behind and pushed her onto the floor, covering her from the tiger soaring above her. She could feel the gush of air the tiger's jump created, and a set of claws digging into her shoulder painfully, slashing through the silk of the bathrobe and into her skin. Then she hit the floor, and pain shot through her left leg that made stars dance before her eyes.

***

A/N: That was sort of an epilogue to my current story. It's nowhere near finished, and I only have a vague idea of where I'm going with it, but I thought I'd just start publishing it and see where it goes - therefore, reviews are highly appreciated.

The title is a line from Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man".

And don't worry - the real characters will start appearing soon.


	2. Chapter 2

An eventful evening – part 2

Captain Becker had had a pretty good day so far. There had been no anomalies, and he had finally had the time to get an extended combat training session done before spending some time on the shooting gallery. If his luck continued, he might even enjoy a free weekend. He had just settled in with a book that had been lying on his coffee table for months when his handheld anomaly detector started beeping.

Casting a glance at it, he noticed that the site was just a few streets away from his flat. Unfortunately, that also meant that it was in the middle of a residential area, and at a time everyone was home. Quickly deciding it was best to get there fast, he jumped into his boots and a jacket and grabbed his gun out of his nightstand. He quickly called the ARC to let them know that he was already on his way to the anomaly and that they should bring his equipment before starting towards the anomaly site at a run.

It took him less than ten minutes to get to the building, a small semi-detached house with a blue door. There were lights on, but everything seemed quiet, and he was just wondering how to go about checking out the scene without making the inhabitants panic when he heard a bloodcurdling scream from the inside. Without a moment's hesitation, he kicked open the door and ran inside.

He was greeted by a sight that made his blood freeze. The back wall of a rather cozy looking living-room was covered in the glittering prisms of an anomaly. It wasn't big, but big enough to cause trouble, and trouble had already arrived. In the middle of the living-room stood a woman in a dark red silk bathrobe brandishing an iron poker and, facing her, what would have looked like a very big tiger to him just months ago. Now, however, he knew better: The creature prowling slowly back and forth while watching its prey was a sabre tooth tiger, and just as he came to that conclusion, he also realised that the animal was about to jump, so he jumped as well, throwing the woman down onto the floor.

The tiger missed them, but just barely, and he could hear the woman's muffled cry of pain as the tiger's claws dug into her. The animal hit the opposite wall with a dull thud, and Becker quickly got back to his feet. Thankfully, the hit had knocked the tiger out, at least temporarily, and he could go about getting the woman to safety. She was still slumped on the floor, bleeding from the wound on her shoulder, and her left ankle lay limply at a rather odd angle. He crouched down beside her and helped her to sit up. At least she was conscious.

"Are you alright? We need to get out of here before it wakes up again." He tried to help her stand up, but when she tried to stand on her left foot, she screamed in pain and slumped back against the wall, her face white as a sheet.

"I must have twisted my ankle or something." One look at her ankle made him pretty sure it was broken, not twisted. Deciding that she could not walk out of here, much less in the thin bathrobe she was in, he grabbed a blanket from the sofa, wrapped it around her and picked her up. She started to protest, but a slight growling from the tiger made her shut up.

"Do you have a car?" She nodded and grabbed a set of keys from a small table next to the door as he walked past it, making sure to slam it shut behind him.

"Where is it parked?"

"Right in front of my house, it's the little blue Citroen. You know, I can walk on one leg. I'm not crippled."

"Your ankle is broken, you should not try to walk on it. Besides, " he explained as they passed the front gate and stopped in front of the car, "we're there." She unlocked the car with shaking hands, and he gently placed her in the front passenger's seat.

"How is your shoulder?" She folded down the blanket and shoved her bathrobe down over her left shoulder. The wound looked bad, but the bleeding had almost stopped and he figured she would be fine for another few minutes, at least until the team arrived and he could get her to a hospital.

"I'll be fine, I'm just confused. What was that thing? How did it get into my apartment? And who are you?"

"I don't have time to explain right now. Just stay here. I will be back as soon as the problem is taken care of."

"I hope that will be soon, my feet are freezing," she grumbled. He was just about to slam the door shut, thinking she was rather ungrateful, when she grabbed his hand and added, "Thank you for saving my life. And good luck." She smiled up at him despite the pain that she had to be in, and he couldn't help but smile back.

He made his way back to the house, wondering how on earth he was going to deal with a sabre tooth tiger armed only with a small handgun, when an ARC pick-up sped up to the house and stopped in the middle of the road, breaks screeching. Abby, Connor and Danny jumped out, armed with tranquilizer guns and rifles, followed by two of his men in full gear. He sighed in relief – until he heard rumbling and growling from the other side of the door and knew the tiger had woken up.

"It's a saber tooth, knocked out but waking up again. Anomaly's inside, in the living-room. We just need to tranquilize it and get it back through." The others nodded and got in position in front of the door, tranquilizer guns aimed at the door. Taking a step closer, he kicked it open before throwing himself down on the floor to allow the others to shoot. The tiger barely had time to seize them before two tranquilizer darts hit it and it promptly sank back down again. He motioned for his men to get the equipment to seal the anomaly before grabbing the tiger's hind legs and, assisted by Danny, dragging it back inside and through the anomaly. They only took the time to dump the tiger and have one quick look around the landscape before jumping back through. They were armed with nothing but a tranquilizer gun, and it would have been way too dangerous to stay any longer. As his men carried in the equipment boxes and started setting up the gear, he remembered the woman sitting outside in the car. She really needed to get to a hospital. She had been holding up quite well, but he knew that that was just the adrenaline. As soon as its level would sink, she would be in a lot of pain.

"What happened before we arrived? Where are the inhabitants? Was anyone hurt?" Abby fired questions at him.

"I arrived about ten minutes ago. The inhabitant of the house is sitting outside in her car, she's got a broken ankle and a wound on her shoulder, but she's fine otherwise. I'll get her to a hospital now, I think you can handle this from here on." Abby nodded, knowing that it would only take Connor about ten more minutes to get everything set up and close the anomaly.

"Make sure she doesn't talk to anyone. Our cover story for the hospital is an escaped tiger from the zoo, and you were just walking by when you heard her scream. As for her… she's seen the sabre tooth, so we'll have to get her to sign an Official Secrets act." He was halfway out the door when he remembered the woman's comment about cold feet and her rather improper attire and turned back towards Abby.

"Abby, one more thing. Could you run upstairs, look for the bedroom and grab some clothes? She's not really dressed." Abby's mouth fell open in surprise.

"What do you mean she's not dressed?"

"Well, she's wearing a bathrobe and a blanket, and that's not exactly proper attire." Abby nodded and, without asking any more questions, walked upstairs. She was beginning to get curious about a woman who could get attacked by a sabre tooth tiger in her own living-room, wait outside in her car with a broken ankle and a creature injury, and get Captain Becker to be considerate and caring – and all that wearing a bathrobe and a blanket. Abby was already full of respect. She found the bedroom easily enough, grabbed a bag and stuffed some clothes inside – underwear, socks, a sweater and a skirt as well as a night-gown - before heading downstairs where she also grabbed a pair of flat shoes and handed everything to Becker, who promptly headed out.

***

Jane was beyond annoyed. This had to be among the worst days of her life. She was sitting outside of her house, which had been invaded by a group of rather strange people carrying a bunch of boxes and lots of weapons. She was shivering with cold despite the blanket and the bathrobe, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, her shoulder and ankle were throbbing with pain. She almost cried in relief when her rescuer knocked on the car window. She quickly unlocked the doors, and he climbed into the driver's seat, snatched the car keys from the dashboard and started the car.

"Alright, everything's taken care of. Let's get you to a hospital."

"What about the animal? And the shimmering light thing? And who the hell are you?"

"I'm with Wellington zoo. The animal was an escaped tiger, which will now be transported back to the zoo."

"You expect me to believe that? That tiger should have been extinct for thousands of years. What is this, some sort of genetic mutation?" He sighed to himself. He hadn't expected her to believe him, but he really wished that someone else was there to take care of these things. Ever since Jenny Lewis had left, they had had to deal with people themselves, and he wasn't really good at dealing with people. And this woman was not only very curious, but also bright, suspicious and surprisingly level-headed for someone who had a shock and several injuries.

"Listen, I can't tell you anything right now, and frankly, the only thing that matters is getting you to a hospital. So please, bear with me and stick to the tiger explanation, at least until you're patched up, alright?" She was in no way satisfied, but the pain was making it increasingly hard to think straight.  
"By the way, I've brought you some clothes." He indicated towards the bag he had thrown onto her lap which she only noticed right now. She looked at him, speechless at this much consideration. Apparently, he took that to mean she was angry.

"I sent a female colleague to get them. I wouldn't want to invade your privacy."

"Never mind. You saved my life, you can do whatever you want to. Besides, after you've seen me prance around in my bathrobe, it's only fair you get to see my underwear." She smiled at him, and he chuckled and relaxed a little.

Now the only thing she had to figure out was how to actually get into the clothes. She managed, under much struggling and cursing and incredible pain, to put on her panties, and thanked his colleague for picking out a skirt instead of trousers, but she didn't want to get blood on her shirt, so she settled for the rather strange outfit of a skirt, one sock and a bathrobe, and sank back into the seat exhaustedly.

"You know what, I'll just leave it at that and put the rest on after they've patched me up at the hospital."

"Well, you might have to stay the night anyway. I think Abby packed a night-gown as well."

"Abby's your colleague?"

"Sort of. She's a zookeeper."

"But you aren't?" She had him there.

"No, I'm not. I'm a special forces soldier, we get called in whenever something like this happens."

"And that happens a lot?" She was beginning to get drowsy, slurring her words.

"More often than you think. Here we are."

They arrived at the hospital, and he pulled up at the entrance. When he picked her up this time, she didn't even protest, blood loss, pain and exhaustion making the world swim before her eyes. She could feel his body warmth seeping through her thin robe and the comforting, solid presence of his body, and she passed out.

***

Becker didn't know why, but after he had carried the woman inside and found someone to take care of her, he stuck around. He was sure the others would be fine without him, and after all, someone had to drive her home afterwards and make sure she didn't tell anyone about anything. Nonetheless, he felt weird waiting around for a woman he didn't know at all. He had never met her before, they had only had one conversation and that was considerably marred by her pained noises and general exhaustion. Heck, he didn't even know her name. Still, he felt compelled not only to protect her from harm, as was his job, but to generally look after her and make sure she was okay. The way she had dealt with the events of the evening had been quite impressive. Despite being in pain, she had stayed calm and lucid, and dealt with the fact that she wasn't wearing much in an impressively dignified way.

So he stuck around, thumbing his way through countless magazines in the waiting-room. Three hours later, he was beginning to regret his decision to stay here, when the door opened and the woman hobbled out on crutches, followed by a nurse carrying the bag. She was now wearing a sweater instead of the bathrobe, and her left ankle was in a cast. After dealing with a bit of paperwork, she was sent home, and Becker took the bag from the nurse and took the lead to the car.

The trip back seemed to pass much faster than before, maybe because he wasn't so worried anymore. Thankfully, she didn't ask any questions until they had reached her house and he led her inside. They had barely entered the house, however, when she stopped dead in the middle of the entrance hall and exclaimed, indignantly:

"It's still there. You said you had taken care of everything."

"We have. The light is still there, but nothing can come through anymore. Consider it a very unusual piece of art."

"You're absolutely sure nothing will get through there?"

"Pretty sure." They had sealed several anomalies with Connor's technique, and so far, none of them had reopened unless they wanted them to. Nonetheless, they had no proof that the anomalies couldn't reopen, so he guessed there was a slight residual risk. She looked very unconvinced, and he could understand that. It was one thing to leave behind an anomaly site in an airplane hangar or a forest, but it was a different matter altogether to go to bed not knowing if the portal in your living-room could re-open and spit out more prehistoric predators.

"If you want me to, I'll stay here and guard it."

"Would you? I'll probably be embarrassed as hell by this tomorrow, but right now, I really don't want anything else appearing in my living-room."

"That's very understandable." She smiled gratefully.

"Gosh, you've done so much for me already, I feel a little guilty asking even more of you. Then again, you're also in the secret society responsible for covering these things up, so I guess it's not that bad. Besides, I'm on more drugs than an entire rave party combined, so I guess I have an excuse." He chuckled, but didn't reply. Right now, all he wanted to do was sleep, and if he should sleep on some strange woman's couch guarding an anomaly, then so be it.

She began hobbling towards the stairs, and he followed her.

"Do you need help getting up the stairs?"

"No, I'll get there somehow. But you should come upstairs if you want to have some blankets and a pillow." She started hobbling up the stairs on one leg, and after it had taken her about two minutes to get up three steps, he decided to shorten the process, and picked her up again.

"That's the last time today, I promise. I'm just really tired, and I would like to get to bed some time before dawn. Not your bed, of course. To the sofa."

He realised he was babbling, and promptly shut up. She grinned, but he could tell she was very close to falling asleep as well. He set her back down in her bedroom and had a look around while she prepared a set of blankets for him. The room was decidedly feminine, and it was obvious that she lived alone. He was feeling a bit awkward. After all, he didn't know the woman at all, and now he was standing in the middle of her bedroom.

Thankfully, she then pushed the set of blankets and pillows in his arms and wished him a good night. Just as he was about to turn and leave the room, she added, quietly:

"And thank you for being here today." She stepped closer and pressed a light kiss to his cheek.

***

Despite all the excitement and the fact that the sofa was a bit short so that his feet dangled over the edge, Becker slept soundly until he was woken by sunlight and the smell of coffee.

It took him a second to figure out where he was and why it smelled of coffee, until he remembered the events of the evening. One look at the an old-fashioned wall clock on the opposite wall made him jump up and grab to his mobile to tell Lester he'd be late, but then he remembered that it was Saturday. So he decided to follow the coffee smell, as it would probably lead him to the kitchen and his very recent acquaintance, whose name, he just realised, he didn't even know.

The kitchen was right next to the living-room, and as he entered, he found her already sitting at the table, reading a paper and holding the source of the delicious smell – a steaming mug of coffee. She looked up when he entered, and greeted him with a dazzling smile.

"Good morning. I hope you've slept well despite my lumpy sofa? I didn't want to wake you up, seeing as I already kept you up half of the night." As soon as she said it, she realised how inappropriate that sounded, and blushed, but he just chuckled and passed over the comment.

"I've slept well enough, thank you. However, I could really use some of that coffee."

"Oh, sure. What do you want to eat for breakfast? If you've got the time, of course."

"I've got all the time in the world. It's a Saturday, after all, and my first free one in weeks, so I haven't made any plans yet."

"Perfect. You're lucky, I've had the time to do actual grocery shopping this week. Would you like an omelette?"

"If it's not too much trouble…"

"Not as much as you have had with me already. I've ruined your Friday evening, it's only fair I get you a decent breakfast." He found he didn't really want to say no to that, so he sat down and sipped the coffee she had poured him while she hobbled around the kitchen.

"You know, I don't think we even introduced ourselves yesterday. I'm Captain Becker." He held out his hand, which felt oddly formal considering the events of last night, but she shook it nevertheless, leaving a flour stain on his shirt sleeve, for which she apologised hastily. He realised she was nervous, and gave her a reassuring smile that made her relax.

"I'm Jane Wilkinson, and it's nice to meet you." With that, she continued emptying out the fridge and piling delicious-looking food onto the table – Italian ham, an avocado, goat cheese, ciabatta bread, grapes, smoked salmon.

"You don't go grocery shopping very often, do you?"

"No, I usually eat at whatever take away restaurant I walk past on my lunch break, and finish the day with some stale bread at home. That's why I went a little overboard this week." He decided he wasn't going to complain about the luxurious breakfast, and just nodded. Besides, he knew exactly what she was talking about. Most days, his fridge didn't contain much more than a bottle of vodka and a ready-to-eat meal. Spending his Saturday morning having a scrumptious breakfast with a stranger didn't seem like the worst thing he could do, especially as he really hadn't made any plans. Just as he was about to go for the goat cheese, his mobile rang, and he excused himself. It was Lester, and Becker internally said goodbye to the goat cheese, seeing as he probably had to come in to give a report instead of enjoying his free Saturday. Sighing, he answered the call.

"Becker, where the hell are you? Where is the eyewitness? Have you got her to sign an official secrets act yet?"

"No I haven't, she was in no shape to do that last night, and I didn't happen to have the forms on me. However, I'm still at her place, and I can get her to sign if you send one over." He flinched as he wondered what his boss would make of that tidbit of information, but thankfully, Lester didn't comment.

"That won't do at all, seeing as I am at my son's birthday party and do not intend to leave it for something like that. Just get her to keep her mouth shut and have her come into the ARC Monday morning. I'd like to have a word with her myself, to judge how bad the situation is." With that, the conversation ended abruptly, and Becker grinned as he returned to the kitchen, where a delicious-looking omelette was waiting for him.

"That was my boss. You need to come in to sign an official secrets act Monday morning." Considering how curious she had been last night, he doubted she would take that without any protest.

"An official secrets act? You mean I'm not allowed to talk about this? Alright, you need to tell me who you're working for, and what exactly you're doing. And even then, I still don't think I want to keep quiet." He sighed. The morning could have been so pleasant.

"As I told you last night, we're working with the zoo whenever an animal escapes. That's all I can tell you."

"Oh come on, do you think I'm stupid? That wasn't any type of existing tiger last night. It jumped through a ball of light in the middle of my living-room, and you immediately knew about it. You didn't just happen to walk past my house last night. Besides, I've seen your colleagues arriving, with the pick-ups, the machine guns and all that stuff you put up in my living-room, and I've had the impression that it had very little to do with escaped zoo animals, so don't try to palm me off with that lame story. I could have got killed last night, the least I should know is what tried to kill me."

"Listen, I know we're suspiciously secretive and we're acting against the constitutional right for freedom of speech, but we're good people, and it's for the best."

"That's what all the evil secret societies say."

He didn't know what to reply to that, so they just sat there, staring at each other in icy silence. He tried to break the awkward silence by changing the topic.

"So, what's your job?"

"I'm a journalist."

"Oh." Bollocks, he added mentally. Of all the people to see an anomaly, it had to be a journalist. No wonder she was so keen on making this public, it was the story of a lifetime and she knew it.

"Oh indeed. Therefore, you are not only acting against the right for freedom of speech, but also against freedom of the press. Nice."

"Look, I don't know what to say anymore, and I'm really not authorized to tell you anything at all, so would you please lay off me? You can talk to my boss about it Monday morning."

Upon his pleading look – he had always been good at making puppy dog eyes when it was necessary – she actually did stop badgering him. The pleasant atmosphere, however, was gone, and they ate mostly in silence. Therefore, his intended long breakfast was cut short, and he left half an hour later. At least he had got her to promise not to publish the incident until Monday morning.

Nevertheless, he was in a weird mood all day long. He regretted that the unpleasant side of his job had cut short what had promised to be a very pleasant morning with an interesting woman. He had to admit, he would have liked to get to know her better.

There was just something about Jane Wilkinson that intrigued him.

***

A/N: Frankly, I'm still not sure if I should really publish this, but I'll continue and see what happens. Also, as some of you might have noticed, I called the last chapter an epilogue although, obviously, it's a prologue. Sorry for the mix-up. Reviews are appreciated.


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